The federally threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly was extirpated from San Bruno Mountain in the mid 1980s. On March 2 and 3 2017, Creekside Science biologists collected 3630 caterpillars from Coyote Ridge in San Jose and released them on the main ridge of San Bruno Mountain. The larvae immediately started munching English plantain, a non-native used by other closely related checkerspot populations. The cool coastal environment, robust perennial hostplant, and extensive habitat are encouraging aspects of this project. This project may show that we can reintroduce extirpated species without the technical challenges and expense of restoring all historical conditions.

Find the very hungry caterpillar!

Many thanks to the Disney Butterfly Conservation Initiative, US Fish and Wildlife Service, San Mateo County Parks and Recreation, and SF Bay Wildlife Society for financial and professional support.

Reintroduction high above San Francisco International Airport. Bay checkerspot flight #1 will depart in late March!

A multi-year collaboration between Western Washington University (Andrew Bunn, Jamis Bruening, Tyler Tran), The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at University of Arizona (Matthew Salzer) and Creekside Science (Stu Weiss, Jimmy Quenelle) culminates with the publication of this paper!

It was an honor to work with this dedicated team over time and over diverse terrain, from various lab locations to the AGU conference in San Francisco to the peaks, ridges and canyons of the Sierra, White Mountains and Snake Range.

Congratulations to Jamis and Tyler for recently earning their Master’s Degrees

from Western Washington University for their work on this project! Enjoy the paper!